That got city fathers thinking about something lacking in Mesa — a civic center. There was the Mezona Auditorium, a modest recreational venue on west Main Street between Morris and Robson. But it was too small for a large-scale event.

When they heard about Building No. T-544, local leaders found an inexpensive answer to their problem.

During the war, T-544 played an important role serving as the Base Engineering, Maintenance and Inspection facility at the Marana Army Airfield near Tucson. Now it was a discarded structure looking for a new home.

On Aug. 19, 1947, the City Council approved the call for a bond election to purchase, dismantle, transport and re-erect T-544 in downtown Mesa.

The cost was $100,000, payable over 20 years.

With voter approval, the gigantic former hangar was moved to Mesa and resurrected as the Municipal Coliseum replete with polished hardwood floor.

Not long after it opened in the fall of 1948, the 27,225-square-foot behemoth became home to the Maricopa County Fair, the Citrus Fair, the Mesa Jaycee's Rawhide Roundup, sporting events, dog shows and just about anything else one could imagine.

Not only did the Municipal Coliseum, the largest "civic coliseum" in the state, prove a versatile venue for all sorts of activities, it also became a magnet that brought people in from all over the Valley.

On one Thursday night in February 1959, the building was filled, as it was every Thursday for many years, with rabid professional wrestling fans.

Sometime during the early morning hours, a fire began in the upper reaches of the building. Within 15 minutes of its discovery, at about 7 a.m., the structure was engulfed.

When the roof collapsed moments later, the spectacular "flames lept hundreds of feet into the sky feeding on oxygen supplied by a brisk breeze blowing from the east. A huge pall of smoke billowed forth darkening the sky over Mesa," according to a newspaper account.

The downtown all the way to the western city limits was showered with fiery embers and burning debris.

Nearly the entire 32-man Mesa Fire Department answered the alarm, but there was little they could do, leaving more than 30 upcoming events without a home.